Speaking of Art
By Lisa L. Cyr
Join an Artistic
Revolution
Try something new: Explore alternative
surfaces, unconventional media
and innovative techniques.

Since the advent of modern art, there’s been an ever-growing interest in exploring unconventional surfaces and techniques. Artists who have ventured outside the constraints of traditional approaches have found more inventive ways of handling space, structure, form and content. Their eagerness to push boundaries opened up a plethora of new possibilities in picture-making.

Today’s artists are experimenting with a vast array of unorthodox surfaces, both flexible and rigid. From metal, wood, plastic, clayboard and tile to handmade and custom paper, as well as woven and synthetic fabrics of every kind, alternative painting grounds are being explored.

To build the working surface, artists are altering the once traditional gesso primer with sand, sawdust, wood chips, seeds and the like—giving the painting ground a much more expressive and symbolic

role. In addition, substances such as plaster, modeling paste, wax and acrylic gel medium are being heavily applied to the working surface in both additive and subtractive methods, using unconventional tools such as combs, sticks, putty knives, serrated scrapers and other mark-mak-ing apparatuses to create a bas-relief, almost frescolike appearance. By dramatically altering the topography of the working surface, artists can create exquisitely tactile effects once drawing or painting mediums are applied on top.

To break away from the starkness of a white ground, artists are

Rose 2 (60x45x2) by Michael Mew

Private collection

Media: acrylic, graphite and resin
Materials: magazine pages and
weathered newsprint
Techniques: collage and sanding
Surface: wood panel

■ This article is excerpted from Art Revolution © 2009 by artist and writer Lisa L. Cyr (www. cyrstudio.com) and is used with permission of North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Media Inc. Visit www.northlightshop.com or your local bookseller, or call 800/448-0915 to obtain a copy. Cyr also offers a related traveling lecture, Reinterpret, Reinvent and Redefine, to interested organizations and universities. Visit www. cyrstudio.com/cuttingedge.html for details.